Ending the Tour With a Bang
by WayTooSmartToBeBlonde
Summary: Alex goes through a rough night of realization brought on by a new song Mitchie first introduces to the world at the final concert for her summer tour. Repercussions are always sure to follow. Just a three-shot. Femslash!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I wrote this story over at LJ and then decided to add it over here. When I first wrote it, I wrote it as a Demi/Selena story instead of Mitchie/Alex but that's not allowed over here so I changed the names. It'd probably be considered an AU story only because I didn't change the circumstances around their lives. Basically, any time you see Mitchie think Demi, Alex think Selena, and Harper think Jennifer. Lovely! Now, enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything but the song.

-x-

"Alex!" I heard Harper yell from the front hotel room.

"What, Harper? I'm kinda in the middle of something!" I shouted back as I stared intently at the computer screen, trying to beat my latest time on minesweeper.

"Um, I was just thinking that you might want to come watch this." Harper called back to me.

I sighed when I clicked on the wrong square and heard the exploding noise that told me I just lost. "Sorry" I mumbled to the little smiley face at the top of the screen that I had just blown up. I closed my laptop and left it on the coffee table as I got up off of the hotel floor, walked over, close the screen door I had opened so that I could listen to the ocean waves crash against the shore and walked into the front room. "What's up?" I asked the girl whom I was presently vacationing with.

"Just hold on a second. It's about to come back on." Harper told me after I sat down next to her on the couch and turned my attention toward the TV.

We sat in silence watching a GEICO commercial that was on mute.

The show that Harper had been watching came back on and she hurried to turn the volume up for me to hear.

"Welcome back! We saved the best juicy gossip for you for last, tonight. Earlier tonight, Mitchie Torres, a largely popular Camp Rock star, wrapped up her 2009 summer tour with a bang. The rising star ended her concert with a short speech and gifted all her fans with a new, never before heard, song. Little Miss Torres sure knows how to stir up Hollywood. We were able to get our hands on a copy of the video taken during her speech and heartfelt song. What you're about to see is a possible confession of a secret love that Torres has been hiding from us all.

I laughed at the TV, receiving a startled look from Harper in return. "Mitchie doesn't have a secret love." I explained to my friend. "If she did, she would have told me."

My attention zoomed back to the TV screen as the so-called 'love confession' of my best friend started to play.

"I just want to say a huge thank you to all of my fans!" I heard the familiar, slightly distorted, due to the microphone, voice of Mitchie say to the crowd. She sounded out of breath and excited but, having known Mitchie for years, the finely tuned Mitchie voice analysis software in my head told me that she was also nervous about something. "Without you, I would never have made it so far. You guys are amazing and I love you all. As most of you know, this is the last concert of my summer tour." She looked tired and sweaty as she walked across the stage to the baby grand piano that was sitting off to the side; her fingers trailing along the side of the black wood as she went.

"Do you want to hear one more song before this tour is officially over?" her question was answered by thousands of voices screaming their approval.

"Alright, I'll take that as a yes." Mitchie said with a laugh at her enthusiastic fans. "You guys are so amazing that I want to sing you a song that I just recently wrote that hasn't been released yet." She sat down on the piano bench and traced the keys slowly. "It's for someone that I have loved for years in every context of the word and miss more than anyone in the entire world. You know who you are." Notes started to ring out to create the most haunting lullaby that has ever graced my ears. "I'm just so tired of keeping it inside. I hope you all will understand."

A different melody started to form, though the gloomy atmosphere was left hanging in the air, setting the mood.

"Why can't you just hold me

Like you used to do

Forget about if they'll see

For just a second forget about fame

Go back to the days

That your smile was true

When we'd laugh 'til we ache

When we'd watch the sun rise"

I could hear the pain in my best friend's voice that she must have gone through while she wrote those lyrics. My heart went out to her, the music she was playing on the piano made me want to cry.

"Everything's changing all around me

Yet I'll still stay the same

I'll be consistent

So that you know

I'll never go away

Be there for you when you fall down

To wipe away the tears

Like you did for me

In all the now past years

You call me when your heart breaks

Over a guy you say's the one

We stay on the phone for hours

I wish I could kiss away your pain

I tell you it'll go away

That it will just take time

I would know, I'm the expert on heartbreak

It's you that's causing mine

Everything's changing all around me

Yet I'll still stay the same

I'll be consistent

So that you know

I'll never go away

Be there for you when you fall down

To wipe away the tears

Like you did for me

In all the now past years

I wake up each day

Only to wish I could still sleep

In my dreams you're always there

Your arms open wide for me"

Tears were pooling in my eyes, only wanting to leak out more when I saw tears slipping down Mitchie's cheeks. Her voice somehow wasn't affected by her crying; I figured all of the emotions that were already being put into her song meant that there were none left over to take part in her crying.

"Everything's changing all around me

Yet I'll still stay the same

I'll be consistent

So that you know

I'll never go away

Be there for you when you fall down

To wipe away the tears

Like you did for me

In all the now past years

My ears still ringing

The crowd cheers my name

If I could have you back

In a blink, I'd give up fame

If we could be together

Which I know we never can

I'd give up anything you want

Just come back and take my hand"

Her song finished, leaving tears streaming down both her face and mine, alike. The fans were no longer screaming energetically, the room left impossibly silent considering all the people jammed inside it.

Harper turned the TV off but I continued to stare blankly at the black screen.

I felt numb. I could feel tears continue to slide down my cheeks but I didn't care. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing other than Mitchie and the song that was presently haunting my mind.

I didn't notice Harper stand up and leave me to my thoughts. I didn't take notice of the phone vibrating in my pocket. Just Mitchie; the image of her pouring her heart out in front of all those screaming fans and not worrying about them seeing her weak for once, vulnerable, was burnt permanently into my brain. I felt empty.

I realized I was hyperventilating when my head started to feel light and the room started to spin. I had never truly believed people who said that your heart could actually hurt, physically hurt… not until now. I guess it's one of those things that you can never really relate to until you've felt your heart throb and break apart into a million microscopic pieces.

I didn't know what to do and had an even lesser idea of what I should be feeling. All I could feel was numbness spreading out to every fiber of my being, slowly consuming my soul.

I suddenly took a deep breath that snapped me back to reality. Several shaky breaths followed as I tried to regain control.

"Harper" I cried out in a week voice.

"Yeah?" I heard her say uncertainly.

"I'm going for a walk. Don't wait up." I told her and grabbed a jacket that was spread across the back of a chair. I grabbed a room key that was sitting on the table and checked to make sure I had my cell.

"Be careful." Harper told me as I passed her on the way out, just before I shut the door and heard the lock click into place.

I hurried down the hall and pressed the 'down' arrow to call the elevator up to my floor. I stood still for about two seconds before I impatiently started to pound the elevator button repeatedly. I was shaking and trying to hold myself together but every second that passed made it harder to keep the tears in.

The elevator finally arrived at my floor and opened with a musical 'ding'. I hurried through the open doors and jammed the ground level button. Tears threatened to spill when my thoughts traveled back to the long days after Mitchie and I got off the set from shooting our movie and climbing the stairs with Mitchie because she was afraid of elevators.

I took another shaky breath to try to calm my raging emotions.

Another 'ding' rang in my ears and the doors to the elevator opened.

I ran out and hooked a left to walk along a paved path that would lead me straight to the sandy beach. I could hear the waves crashing in on itself and I knew that in just a matter of seconds, that same wave would be dragged back in and expected to repeat the endless process, again and again, for the rest of time.

My bare feet hit the sand at a run. I raced toward the water whose symphony was playing just for me, to comfort my heart and drown out all other music that was being played over and over in my head.

I felt the softer sand slide between my toes and the painful shell and sand mix fall farther behind. I couldn't defy the gravity that pulled my body down any longer; I collapsed in on myself just like the waves that stopped just a few feet away from me. I let my tears fall and sobs rack my whole body. I didn't resist any more, I just let it take me, pushing and pulling like the ocean would do.

I don't know how long I stayed out on the pitch black beach. All I know is that it was long enough for me to cry myself to the point that my head was literally throbbing.

I didn't want this. I didn't want my best friend to be in love with me, for that really was what her speech and song confessed; her love for me that she had been bottling up for years on end and now had finally become too tired to hold it in any longer.

I didn't love her back, not that way at least. I had never even thought about her that way. I had no idea that she had ever felt that way about me.

It wasn't fair. Life had just started to put itself together the way we had planned. Her career was taking off faster than either of us had imagined, my show was going great, the Wizards movie was about to release, and my new album about to come out.

"Mitchie…" I whimpered as I wrapped my arms around myself, holding my sides so that maybe I could stay in one piece a little longer. I closed my eyes and tried to recall her voice singing out those last lines of the love song written just for me.

'_If we could be together_

_Which I know we never can_

_I'd give up anything you want_

_Just come back and take my hand'_

I wanted to hold her and comfort her and be the glue that I knew held her world together when I heard the heartbreak echoing through her song. I want her to be here to hold me together right now and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that her song described exactly what I've been feeling, I just haven't been able to put my finger on it until now.  
Maybe what I've always felt for my best friend wasn't so best friend-y after all, I mused to myself.

I lay curled up in a ball for hours until the sun started to peek over the horizon, throwing everything into a warm orange-ish glow.

I picked myself up off of the sand and tracked slowly back to the hotel. I didn't attack the elevator buttons like I had the night before in my impatience to get to the ocean shore to cry out my heartache for the world to witness. Instead I gently tapped the button once and closed my eyes and rested my head against the wall tiredly as I waited for the elevator doors to open. One more annoying 'ding' later and I was on my way up to my hotel room.

Harper was still asleep when I opened the door as quietly as possible and creeped into our joint hotel room. She looked peaceful, so I tried to sneak into the other room without disturbing her.

The room was exactly as I had left it; my plate with bread crumbs sprinkled over it was even still sitting on the coffee table where I had forgotten to put it in the trashcan in my haste to come find out what Harper wanted me to see.

I sighed and plopped exhaustedly onto the nearby couch, pulling out my cell phone to find I had missed a call from someone, sometime last night. I dialed my voicemail and listened to the message that was left for me.

"I'm sorry if you're upset with me. I understand if you're mad or hurt or never want to see me again. I just couldn't keep it in any longer." Mitchie's voice through the phone was breaking every other word and I could tell she was crying just as hard as I had been last night. "I love you, Alex. I always have and always will. I love you to death and forever after. Nothing will ever, or could ever, change that."

Just like the ocean waves… pushing and pulling, an endless cycle that had no start and had no end, just an endless middle that went on for all of time.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I didn't feel like changing Dallas' (Demi's older sister) name so I left it. This chapter isn't exactly dark, just sad.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own.

-x-

Throughout the day I have listened to the message Mitchie left on my cell phone 43 times and it's not even 5 o'clock yet. Her words were memorized by the 5th time I listened to them and I could probably tell anyone who asked the exact time that her voice was about to crack, when her loudest sob could be heard or even every time she took another shaky breath. It was chiseled into my brain for the rest of eternity. I didn't even truly need to play the recording over again; I could hear it in my mind instead, but it gave me comfort to hear it said in her voice.

No more tears have been spilt since my arrival back at the hotel. There was no more need for tears; they just got in the way anymore.

Harper had been carefully trying to avoiding me any time that she could, without it appearing obvious… or at least what she considered obvious. She'd just 'happen' to be heading into the other room when I would come into the same one. It didn't bother me though; I didn't want company. Not hers, at least. There was only one person with whom I wanted to share any space with at the moment.

I haven't called her back; that's just not good enough. Just _calling_ her to tell her, 'yeah I think I'm in love with you too!' isn't good enough. Not after what she did. Not after telling the whole world just to tell me too. The only problem was that I just couldn't think of any way that _was _good enough. I have been brainstorming all day and nothing I come up with is good enough for her. _I_ wasn't good enough for her… but I'll try anyway. She says she loves me, so I just have to trust her and trust that, even though I'm not good enough for her, I'm still what she wants.

I jumped up from the uncomfortable couch and jogged into the other room to retrieve my laptop. Harper was seated on her bed with her own laptop lying in front of her. I glanced at the screen to find her watching a movie. I chuckled when I realized it was High School Musical.

My laptop was waiting patiently for me on my bed. I snagged it up and hurried back out of the room not wanting to make Harper feel like she needed to leave again.

I turned my laptop on and waited for the welcome screen to pop up so I could type in my password. My icon was a picture of Mitchie and me on the set of the movie we shot together.

I quickly typed in 'Mitchie' to unlock the computer and sighed when my background came up. It was yet another picture of Mitchie and me, this time taken shortly before she went off on tour. She looked perfect, as always, with her arm slung around my shoulder, pulling me closer into her.

I pulled the internet up and typed in the web address for Expedia and booked a flight to leave from Florida to California, from my heart's resting place to hers. I found a nonstop flight to Los Angeles that would leave tomorrow night at 6:20pm and would arrive there at 11:30pm that I decided to go with instead of the flight that would leave tonight; I needed more time to gather myself and figure out what exactly I was going to do about Mitchie.

Instead of spending time brainstorming again, I chose to give my head a rest and just spend hours looking through all the pictures on my computer. Most of them were of Mitchie and me striking some random pose or pressing the sides of our faces together and making a kissy face or something.

Most of them made me smile, some made me laugh, and some, mainly the ones I took of Mitchie when she thought I wasn't looking, made me want to cry all over again due to the defeated look in her eyes that I was only just now noticing for the first time. I have no idea how I had never seen it before.

Hours upon hours I looked through hundreds of pictures of just the two of us. Every picture I looked at made me want tomorrow night to come sooner. It was eating me up inside.

I. Wanted. My. Mitchie.

But still, I didn't call. _God_, how I wanted to hear that sweet, angelic voice, even if it was just through the phone… but I resisted. Instead I sufficed for the warped voice that was only an echoed compared to the real thing.

I listened to her broken voice on my phone again, mouthing each word along with the recording, I got onto Youtube and watched the videos that we had made together what seemed like an eternity ago, I watched the dumb videos that we had made when we were little that I had cleverly downloaded onto my computer years ago.

I sufficed for those, but it wasn't fully satisfying. I knew it wasn't the pure essence of her voice, but instead an almost twisted version of it… but it helped. It helped hold me over until I could hear her voice myself, perfectly through my ears, no middleman.

Her videoed confession was up all over Youtube. I didn't watch it. I didn't want to watch it again until I had told Mitchie I loved her just the same. I wouldn't let her tell me twice before I even got to say it once, even if it was a silly, nonsense reason.

The minutes ticked by in the right-hand corner of my laptop screen. I yawned and glanced at the numbers in the corner. 4:13am, it read.

I knew that I should get some sleep but I came up with the brilliant idea of staying up all night watching videos, listening to voicemail messages and looking through pictures, so that I could sleep all day and not been freaking out and watching the clock tick by, getting slower as every second passed, tomorrow… or I guess today. Time always seemed to pass quicker for me at night.

I set my laptop on the coffee table to come back to in a few moments and went to grab all my stuff from the other room.

Harper had long since passed out and, judging by her snores, I didn't have to worry about waking her up if I made too much noise.

I unzipped my suitcase and picked up my half –okay, three fourths– of the clothes that were strewn around the room and threw them into my open bag. I didn't even try to zip the thing completely back, only zipped it partially then dragged it into the back room.

I got my PJ's out and headed for the bathroom. I set my clothes on the counter and turned to the shower. I turned the water on to warm up while I quickly stripped out of my jeans, flannel shirt, bra and panties.

Turning back to the shower, I stuck my hand into the stream of water to assess the temperature. It was almost too hot, but I didn't care.

As the water sprayed on my back I left out a soft moan. _Scratch the 'almost'_, I revised but left the water the way it was anyway.

I felt knots in my shoulders that I hadn't even realized were there, loosen. I closed my eyes to relish the feeling of the water hitting my skin and running down it in streams. I felt the caress of a lover.

I took my time in the shower, knowing that I still had a little while before I would journey off to sleep.

After washing my hair, conditioning it, washing my body with an amazingly good smelling body jell that Harper had left in the shower, and shaving my legs to a silky smooth texture, I turned off the shower and dried my body.

I walked out of the bathroom clad in my cute Power Rangers shirt and a pair of athletic shorts, shaking my towel through my hair to try and dry it.

I plopped back down onto the couch and brought up yet another Youtube video. I was going through and looking at the wide selection of videos that paired Mitchie and me together. Most of them were sweet, but I stopped watching them when I started to regret not booking the soonest flight out to Cali.

I brought up my iTunes library and clicked on the playlist that Mitchie had created two years ago. It was packed full of love songs that I was just starting to realized must have all earned a place in that playlist because of me. I pressed play and listened to the music that brought me back to so many late night talks and crazy memories created in the past years.

-x-

I snapped up from the couch and looked around the room for some device that would tell me the time. I ran into the bedroom and quickly pounced on my bed to get a good look at the clock. 4:51pm. I let out a relieved sigh that I hadn't slept through the whole day and already missed my flight.

I clambered off the bed and ran back into the room that I had spent hours in, on my laptop last night and this morning, and grabbed the clothes I had set out for me to change into today.

After changing and brushing my teeth, I grabbed the suitcase that I had left partly unzipped after my shower and tried to shove everything inside of it in a way that would make it plausible for me to be able to actually get the zipper all the way around the thing. After a couple of minutes of failed attempts, I finally got it to zip completely around.

I turned around and nearly jumped out of my skin when I found Harper standing in the doorway, watching me with an amused expression on her face.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked, embarrassment coloring my cheeks.

"Oh, just long enough to watch you jump up and down on the clothes, kick and punch it multiple times and throw a pillow at it… which, if I may say, throwing the pillow had to be the dumbest out of those." Harper smiled as she listed my idiocies.

"Well I thought the pillow might… maybe if it was… yeah, I got nothing." I mumbled before stalking past her to grab my purse out of the other room.

"So have you finally come to your senses and are going to go get your girl?" Harper asked as she watched me hunt through my purse for a piece of gum.

"My flight leaves as 6:20." I answered with a grin and stuffed the minty gum stick into my mouth.

"Yay!!!" She yelled and hurried forward to embrace me in a tight hug. "I knew you'd realize you're in love with her too sooner or later."

"You knew?!" I yelled, my surprised outburst making her jump.

"I'm pretty sure anyone who actually has an open mind knew, Al." Harper said in a 'duh' tone of voice.

"Ah… yeah, I could see that being true." I agreed then ran back into the other room, Harper following close behind.

"So when do we need to leave for the airport?"

"Um… right now." I said as I ran back past her again to grab my Converse and hop around as I put them on.

"Awesome. I'll get your carryon." I heard Harper say before she turned to grab the bag that I had just stuffed my laptop into.

We hurried down to the lobby of the hotel and out into the parking lot.

There was a group of paparazzi waiting to ambush us on the walk to the car. I just did my best to ignore them and focus on my mission. Harper almost hit two guys when pulling out of the parking lot but at this point, I didn't mind, much less care.

The ride to the airport felt a little longer than I would have liked due to the silence that stretched on and on.

"You _are_ okay with me bailing out early on our vacation, right?" I finally asked Harper after twenty minutes of silence.

"Of course I am! And I'm actually going to bail, too, tomorrow anyway. I'm going to go spend time with my grandparents for a little while." Harper explained, making me feel lodes better.

"Alright, good. I didn't want you to feel like I was ditching you or anything."

"Nah, you're fine."

The silence started up again and made me feel even more uncomfortable.

"So what did you tell Mitchie when you called her?" Harper asked me as she kept her eyes zoned on the road.

"I haven't called her, actually. I'm sorta surprising her?" I said uncertainly, making the second sentence sound more like a question.

"Oh, that's cute. What are you going to say once you see her?" Harper was trying just as hard as I was to not let any more silences start.

"I haven't really figured that out yet, but whatever it is I want it to blow her away. You know, make her feel like she's the most important thing to me?" I said, my mind going back to my previous dilemma.

"Yeah, I get it. Well, whatever you come up with, I'm sure it'll be perfect." Harper pulled the car up to the airport drop off and popped the trunk for me.

We both hopped out and grabbed my stuff. She hugged me tightly before wishing me good luck and a good flight.

With my bags in hand, I headed into the airport and over to the short line of people waiting to pick up their tickets. I pulled the baseball cap I had stored in my carryon and the too-big sunglasses out and slipped them both on.

The line moved quickly and I was pleased that I hadn't been bombarded by fans yet, although now that I looked around, there weren't all that many people around.

I got up to the desk and, after giving the lady my information and getting my tickets, I signed a piece of paper that she insisted she was only asking for to give to her niece.

She took my suitcase and I hurried on to the metal detectors and my flight gate.

An hour later and I was sitting quite comfortably in a first class window seat though the plane was still on the ground. I was relieved when an old man sat down in the seat beside me, happy that I wouldn't have to deal with a crazed fan all the way there when I needed the time to figure out what I was going to do.

The seat belt sign lit up but I didn't worry because I had already fastened it the second I had gotten comfortable. I sighed as I waited for the plane to actually take off already. My phone was also already turned off and resting comfortably in my pocket.

My heart started beating in excitement when I felt the plane start to move though I'm not sure why, seeing as how it was only the very start to a five and a half hour ride.

I spent an hour just staring out the window into the clouds with nothing but Mitchie occupying my mind.

_I'm on my way, Mitch. I'm coming._ I told her in my mind even though I knew she wouldn't hear it.

My mind was still racing with ideas of what I should do and say to her once I got there. I ran through her message in my head again and the memory of the last song of her tour. The lyrics played through my head and, though they were painful and sad lyrics, they still made me smile because it was for me that Mitchie wrote them. Just for me.

It clicked.

I jammed the button to summon the flight attendant, making me remember doing the same thing two nights ago with the elevator.

A woman in her mid twenties came walking down the isle, a pleasant smile fixed on her face.

"What can I help you with?" She asked in a too-sweet-to-be-sincere voice.

"Do you have a piece of paper and pen I could write on?" I asked her in the same fake voice.

I was lucky that she didn't seem to notice she was being mocked and instead just walked away and returned a few seconds later, producing a blank piece of paper and a ballpoint pen.

"Thanks!" I said before turning my attention to the project I only have 4 more hours to work on.

-x-

My plane landed at 11:39 and I felt like I could literally _feel_ the distance between Mitchie and I lesson dramatically with the first step off the plane.

It took thirty minutes to get my luggage back in my possession and wheel it out of the airport and to a taxi that I had called for transportation.

I quickly jumped into the back of the cab and waited for the driver to finish loading my bags in the trunk and climb back into the car. I gave him Mitchie's address and then sat back to catch my breath for a second. I was wiped out.

I opened my eyes and pulled out the now crumpled piece of paper that was scattered with barely legible scribbles and pieces of my heart, and a second piece of paper I had copied the words onto that the flight attendant had willingly brought me, and scanned the worlds for the hundredth time, just to make sure I had gotten it all right. It had to be perfect and anything less was just not acceptable. I was happy with it, but I just hoped Mitchie would be too.

The cab pulled to a stop outside the Torres' house and I quickly paid and thanked the driver.

I grabbed my stuff from the trunk and started the short walk up to their front door. Most of their lights were still on so I didn't have a problem with grabbing the spare key hidden under the rock and unlocking their door. I quickly slipped the key back under the rock.

I pulled my stuff inside and dropped it against the wall as quietly as possible before I took a deep breath through my nose to take in the perfect smell I had missed so much.

I knew that Mitchie's mom was always in the bed and asleep by 10 o'clock so I didn't have to worry about walking around the corner and giving her a heart attack by just randomly showing up like this.

I could hear the TV in the living room on and, as I snuck around the corner, I spotted Dallas catching some late night TV sprawled out on the couch. I tip-toed over to the couch, thanking the good God with such an amazing sense of humor that the couch was facing away from the door and away from me… and then thanked Him again when I realized that she was watching a scary movie that was playing scary, suspenseful music at the moment.

I snuck right up behind Dallas and quickly cupped my hand over her mouth and whisper-yelled a sudden 'BOO!" in her ear at the same time.

She jumped so high that she actually smacked the top of her head against my chin. I was very thankful that I had thought to put my hand over her mouth beforehand, because the scream that came out of her throat would have woken the whole neighborhood up if it had come out unhindered.

"ALEX!" Dallas whisper-yelled at me in a tone that sounded like she was deciding whether she should just fall over dead right now from the heart attack I just gave her, or kill me first and then die.

"Surprise" I said, jokingly striking a 'ta-da' pose.

"Mitchie's locked herself up in her room since the end of her tour and I suggest that you head there while I'm still deciding whether or not to strangle you." Dallas said, her message through her threat quite clear.

"Right, thanks. Enjoy the rest of your night!" I said with a quiet snicker as I walked up the stairs and down the hall to Mitchie's room.

I paused at the door to take a breath but hurried through it, the breath completely forgotten, when I heard a soft whimper and sniff.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my eyes widening, my jaw dropping, my heart stopping dead and my whole world falling away, only leaving a crying, broken, bleeding, destroyed Mitchie, lying sprawled out on her floor with a gleaming pocket knife sliding exhaustedly once more over her bloody, shredded wrists.

Her once-tan carpet now held a pool of red that should be pulsing inside of the love of my life and not rippling with every new drop added to it.

"Mitchie …" My voice broke just like my heart had at this picture playing out before me.

The knife dropped from her hand but she didn't look up at me, I didn't think she had even heard me call out her name. The loss of so much blood was taking its toll on her. I watched her close her eyes, giving in to the call of death that I would be damned if I let take her.

I dropped to my knees beside her and grabbed one of the shirts that was lying on the floor and wrapped it around her wrist, then did it again with the other one.

"DALLAS!!!" I cried out for the older girl, not caring if I woke anyone up at this point. The panic and anxiety in my voice was enough for her not to question my motives of waking up her mom and little sister. "Call an ambulance!" I shouted at her through my tears.

"Mitchie, Mitchie, Mitchie, Mitchie …" I mumbled over and over again as I cradled her head in my lap and held her t-shirt wrapped wrists.

"Al… Ally, you got my message?" I heard the most precious voice in the world whisper mournfully, though she sounded weak and breakable.

"Yes, baby, I got it. I got your message and I love you, too. You just have to hold on for me, Dem; do you think you can do that?" I sobbed to the broken girl in my arms.

"I couldn't live without you. You… y-you didn't call me back so I just figured… I just figured you hated me." Mitchie tried to talk but I could barely hear her weak whisper.

"No, never. Don't you ever say that again! You're the only person in the world I can't live without. Don't you dare leave me! Prove that you love me; fight Mitchie!" I begged her. I could hear Dallas frantically talking to someone on her cell phone in the hall just outside Mitchie's room. I blocked it out and instead focused solely on my Mitchie.

"Mitchie, don't do this to me. Please, I can't –I _won't_– live without you. Come on, Mitchie!" I shouted at her. I _needed_ her.

"Don't say that." She mumbled, tears leaking out of her eyes too now. I wiped them away hurriedly.

"Then don't leave me." I argued back in a mumble too. I stared into her eyes worrying that this might be the last time I could ever get to see life in them.

I heard an ambulance siren in the background and all I could do was clutch Mitchie's hand tighter with each passing second.

I pressed my lips to Mitchie's forehead and whispered to her quietly "Hold on, just a bit longer. I promise that I'm yours forever and ever afterward, just hold on." I whispered desperately, but it fell on deaf ears.

-x-

**A/N: **Like the summary said, there's still one more chapter to go, so no, Mitchie isn't dead.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Here's the end. I thought this was a kinda fun story when I was writing it and I hope you liked it too. Thanks for the reviews and I'll see you later (if you read any of my other stories).

**Disclaimer: **I don't own.

-x-

BEEP…

A long beat of silence.

BEEP…

A moment's pause.

BEEP…

Every stretch that lacked noise sets my heart at a race; silent prayers whispered in my head that there would be another beep soon to follow.

It was music to my ears every time another beep sounded; it meant that my Mitchie's heart was still fighting to keep her alive, that she was still fighting to stay… Just for me.

I tightened my grip on her hand but kept my eyes closed, just focusing on the all-important beeps from the monitor in the hospital room with us.

It was still night, Mitchie and I had barely been in here for twenty minutes now. Her wrists were all bandaged up and on the mend, an IV feeding AB positive into her veins but she still hadn't woken up. The doctors assured me that she was just sleeping, not in a coma or anything. I had pulled a chair up to the side of Mitchie's hospital bed and was right now resting my head tiredly over my folded arms, her hand clutched in mine.

There was a knock on the door. I stood up to go answer it instead of just calling for them to come in so that I wouldn't disturb Mitchie's sleep.

"Hey, Dallas." I muttered exhaustedly.

Dallas had been a challenge to calm down after all the events of this night, as had her mother though her youngest sister had just gone back to sleep after the doctors told us Mitchie would be okay. The last I had seen her, before coming in to stay with Mitchie, she had been pacing in the waiting room to work off her anxiety. "Hey, kiddo. How is she?" Dallas sounded like all the excitement had taken its toll on her too.

"Alive." I said simply. "Let's talk outside; I don't want to wake her until she's rested." I added, ushering Dallas out of the doorway and closing the door as quite as possible behind me.

We walked down the hall and took a right, headed off for the snack and coffee machines.

"God, how could she be so _stupid?!_" Dallas finally exclaimed as if she had been trying to hold it in and she just couldn't anymore.

"It's my fault." I confessed guiltily. "I didn't call her back; she figured I hated her for being in love with me. She probably thought that it made me sick or something; she's always overreacting like that." I smiled, remembering all the funny memories I had stored up from the times that Mitchie has overreacted.

"It's not your fault, Selena. You weren't the one cutting her wrists open." Dallas said angrily, shoving money into the coffee machine.

"I might as well have been." I mumbled and took the cup of coffee that Dallas handed me.

"You took a five and a half hour flight here just to surprise her. You're in love with her, not out to kill her."

"I don't care; if I had just called her back instead of having the brilliant idea of serenading her with some sappy love song, then we'd probably be laying in her bed, curled up under the blankets instead of her almost killing herself and now lying in a hospital bed."

"Awwwwww! You wrote her a sappy love song?!" Dallas asked with a huge grin.

"Yeah… but I don't think I'm going to play it for her anymore; it was sorta going to be the way I told her I love her but that already happened earlier tonight." I said bitterly, taking a sip of the scolding hot coffee.

"No, you should totally still play it for her. You can't just write a love song for her and not sing it to her after she tried to commit suicide because of you!" Dallas cried out.

"Dallas! You're not supposed to agree that it was my fault!"

"Hey, you're the one that said it first!" the older girl defended but she was smiling the whole time, poking fun at me.

"Whatever." I sigh and dropped into a nearby chair.

"But seriously Alex, Mitchie would want to hear the song. I bet it'd even make her cry, depending on how sappy it is." Dallas continued the argument.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't, 'cause I'd need a guitar to play it properly for her." I said the first excuse that came to mind.

"Alright, I'll go home and grab one of Mitchie's. Any preference for which one you want?" Dallas asked as she stood up and started heading for the door.

"Ugh, are you seriously not going to let me get away without singing Mitchie the song?"

"Yep. Now, any preference?" She urged again.

I sighed, giving in before answering, "Her acoustic Dean, please."

"I'll be back in like ten minutes." Dallas smiled triumphantly before turning on her heel and leaving me alone to stalk silently back to Mitchie's room.

I slipped inside, quickly closing the doors behind me to block out the trauma of someone else world that was echoing loudly down the hall. I didn't go back to my spot beside her, but instead made my way over to her window.

Mitchie's room had a perfect view of the moon, at the moment, and for a little while I just stood there transfixed on the milky, glowing orb hanging in the night sky. It was so beautiful; it reminded me of the broken girl sleeping peacefully behind me.

I sighed and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I was surprised to realize that I hadn't remembered to turn it back on after I got off the plane.

After I turned it on I was greeted by a screen that told me I had missed two calls.

I quickly dialed my voicemail and listened to the first message.

"Hey, Alex. I know that you're right now on the plane and haven't even seen Mitchie yet, but when you get there and get a second, call me and tell me how everything went!" Harper had to be one of the sweetest people I know, to leave me that message.

"Al…" my heart stopped as I listened to the second message left for me. "I-I can't do this. I can't _not_ have you in my life. I know that I'm probably the person you w-want to hear from least r-right now." I heard the stuttering, wrecked voice of my Mitchie say through the phone and tears. "I d-don't want to live without you. I thought t-t-that maybe you loved me back, or could at least still be my friend. Obviously you don't think we c-can if you're forwarding my calls to your voicemail. I don't know what else to do or say, Alex. Without you, there's nothing left for me here. I'm so sorry. I miss you so much and even after I'm dead, my love for you will still live." I heard one last sob recorded on my voicemail before I heard her hang up.

_"__Mitchie, Mitchie, Mitchie, Mitchie …" I mumbled over and over again as I cradled her head in my lap and held her t-shirt wrapped wrists._

_"Al… Ally, you got my message?" I heard the most precious voice in the world whisper mournfully, though she sounded weak and breakable._

_"Yes, baby. I got it. I got your message and I love you, too. You just have to hold on for me, Mitch; do you think you can do that?" I sobbed to the broken girl in my arms._

Tears had already escaped my eyes as I realized that we hadn't been talking about the same message.

"Mitchie" I couldn't stop the whimper that came out of my throat.

"Al…?"

I snapped around when I heard my name called, my wishful thinking getting the best of me and making me believe the call came from Mitchie's voice.

"Dallas…" I sighed, my hopes falling miserably.

"Bad timing?" Dallas asked carefully.

"No, it's fine." I mumbled and made my way back to the chair I had been sitting in earlier, turning it slightly so that I wouldn't have my back turned rudely to Dallas.

"This is the one you wanted, right?" Dallas offered me the guitar I had asked for.

"Yeah, thanks."

"She's going to be okay, Alex." Dallas offered her comforting words quietly.

"I know…" I said in a defeated sigh.

"And so are you." Dallas added more firmly than her previous statement.

"As long as Mitchie is, I will." I correct, resting the guitar in my lap and slinging my arm over to quietly pluck the strings, trying to match the chords I was playing to the memory I had of the song Mitchie sang for me. It took a couple of tries and a lot of remembering but eventually I started to get it.

"Awesome song, isn't it?" Dallas said timidly from her place by the window.

"The best." I agreed.

I continued to play the saddest song I had ever heard… or maybe it just seemed sad because of all the aftermath of it.

I tried playing the chorus, screwing up a good number of times before I finally got it. My mind went back to just two nights ago…

_Everything's changing all around me_

_Yet I'll still stay the same_

_I'll be consistent _

_So that you know_

_I'll never go away_

_Be there for you when you fall down_

_To wipe away the tears_

_Like you did for me_

_In all the now past years_

I recalled Mitchie belting out the lyrics of her heart and the sad tears sliding down her face.

I sighed and stopped playing when I reached the second verse. For a long while Dallas and I just watched Mitchie in silence.

A sudden knock on the door made us both jump, then chuckle lightly at our tightly wound nerves.

Dallas pushed herself away from the window she was leaning on and made her way over to answer the door.

"How is she?" I heard the voice of Connie ask her daughter.

"Still asleep." Dallas answered in a hushed tone.

I heard Mitchie's mom sigh.

"Alex, honey… You don't have to stay if you want to get some rest. We'd be happy to have you stay at our house." Mitchie's mother's offer was genuine but I couldn't help but worry that she, like myself, would blame me for her daughter's suicide attempt.

I turned around to answer her, "Thanks, but I want to be here when she wakes up… if that's okay with you." I hurried to add.

"Yes, it's fine sweetie, but I just figured that you must be exhausted by now." Connie sent a motherly smile at me.

"Thank you, but a little sleep deprivation is nothing to me, really." I tried to ease her worry.

"Alright. Well if you need anything just come ask. I'll be in the waiting room." Connie backed out of the room. I was silently thankful that Dallas left with her.

I turned my chair back to face Mitchie and reached for her hand again. I smiled excitedly when I felt a gentle squeeze in return.

"Mitch?" I whispered hopefully.

I watched her face avidly for any reaction and my heart fluttered when a small, playful grin formed on her face.

"Is Dallas gone?" She asked quietly, her eyes still closed tightly.

"Yeah." I felt like I could do back flips when I heard her voice.

"Good." She said with a larger smile forming as she opened her eyes and slowly tried to sit up.

"Stay." I ordered her and reached across her waist to grab the remote to the bed. I pressed the button that would raise the head of the bed up.

She smiled when I lingered over her after I had finished adjusting the bed and pressed a timid kiss to her forehead.

"Alex …" Mitchie mumbled contently and closed her eyes again. It sounded like she was trying to taste every syllable of my name as it came out.

"Mitchie … promise me something?" I couldn't help myself, I had to get her promise before I could do anything else.

"Anything." She answered simply, opening her eyes again, her chocolate gaze meeting mine to show that she was completely serious with her answer.

"_Never_ do _anything_ so _stupid_ like that ever again." I said seriously but smiled to show her I wasn't angry at her… or at least not anymore.

"…as long as you promise me something in return." She said after thinking it over for a second.

"Anything." I quickly answered, each of us smiling at our matching answers.

"I promise to never hurt myself again, as long as you promise to never leave me. My life isn't worth a thing without you in it." I could tell she was completely serious in that if I ever left her, in a split second she's try to reenact this whole night, only making sure that I wouldn't be able to come to her rescue this time.

"I promise that I will always be in your life. I can't promise that we'll always be together but I can promise that we'll always at least be friends." I said, hoping that would suffice for her.

"I can live with that." She said quietly.

"Good." I sighed, happy that I wouldn't ever have to worry about that again.

"Why do you have my guitar here?" She suddenly asked with a confused laugh.

"Cause I wrote something for you and I accidently told Dallas about it and she wouldn't let me get away without singing it to you." I admitted sheepishly.

"I sure do love that girl sometimes." Mitchie commented in an oddly content voice. "Play for me?"

"How could I deny a request asked by that voice?" I sighed with fake defeat. "I have to admit first though; I kind of got the whole idea from your song. Two lines in particular really got me with its truth, so this whole thing is basically built off of that." I said as I shifted the guitar and placed my fingers on the frets.

"And which lines are those?" I could hear the curiosity burning in her voice.

I smiled slightly, "_Go back to the days, that your smile was true_" I quoted from her song.

Her smile turned into a sad shadow of what it had been before.

"I love you." I reassured her, wanting to see her smile instead of frown, before I started strumming the intro to the song I had written for her. I thought about how ironic it was that I had just happened to write the music to a song I had wanted to put lyrics to, just a week ago. It fit perfectly with the mood of the lyrics. I started strumming the melody to the first verse and opened my mouth to sing,

"Sick of life

Just as it is

Being pushed and pulled

Listening to screaming

But I block it out

A different wall

For every shout

Mitchie s smile that I had brought back to her face earlier, now dipped back into a sad, little, heartbreaking frown.

"It's always…

Tears in the night

A smile in the day

Black drawn on white

All the colors fade to gray

My dreams all got shattered

Our hearts split in two

Nightmares being

From the hell that we've been through

You've been my rock

My shining knight

Always there for me

To tell me I'm alright

To warm me when I'm cold

To hold me when I break

You wrap your arms around me

And I know then that I'm safe"

The last line brought a smile back to her face that was quickly washed away when my chorus started back again.

"But there's still always…

Tears in the night

A smile in the day

Black drawn on white

All the colors fade to grey

My dreams all got shattered

Our hearts split in two

Nightmares begin

From the hell that we've been through

I hear your song, your speech, your cry

I listen to your message

And it makes me feel alive

Starts a fire

Burning in my heart

A growing flame

From a tiny spark

I come and take your hand

And you wipe the pain clean"

Her smile forms once again and this time stays put. I'm happy that my words aren't going to wash her beautiful smile away again.

"It left me with…

A smile in the night

A bright and happy day

Black now fades to white

And the colors seem to stay

Dreams put back together

Our hearts no longer two

The wonders of the world

And hopes of me and you

With this I'll say

That I love you too

You make me laugh

With all the crazy things you do

Make me cry

When you go away

But now I know

I'm in your heart to stay" I give the guitar a final strum before the room went quiet.

"Alex …" Mitchie whispers, biting her smiling bottom lip.

"What do ya think?" I asked nervously but judging by her smile, I shouldn't be feeling anxious.

"What do I think?! Are you kidding me?! I love it! I love all of it! I love you!" she exclaimed before repeating herself in a much quieter, more significant voice, "…I love you."

"I love you too." I stood up from my seat and rested the guitar against the bed before leaning into Mitchie, my lips stopping right before they touched hers. I hesitated just a second before firmly pressing my lips against hers.

Mitchie moved to cup my cheek and deepen the kiss. I smiled against the younger girl's lips before gently biting on her lower lip. She giggled into the kiss and pulled back a bit. Her eyes were shining happily, making my heart feel warm and full.

"I love you." she whispered again before leaning forward to meet my lips again.

I pulled back after just a matter of moments though. Mitchie looked at me questioningly with an adorable pout that scrunched up her face.

"Why'd you stop? Don't stop!" she said disappointed and tried to capture my mouth again but I pulled away. I heard her produce a cute whine.

"I'm sorry, babe. It's just this is freaking uncomfortable." I said motioning to my legs that were leaning painfully against the hospital bed railing.

"Fine." Mitchie said with a smile, shifting over in the bed then patting the empty space.

I grinned then plopped down onto the bed next to this perfect girl.

"Mitch… you're my girlfriend now, right?" I asked feeling silly for actually needing to ask.

"Duh!" she said loudly before attacking my lips.

I don't think I could get my mouth open quick enough when I felt her tongue rub against my lip. Our moans melted together until I wasn't sure if it was her moan or mine that was vibrating through my mouth.

All too soon I felt Mitchie pull away but I used the break to my advantage to catch my breath. I rested my head against hers, content at the moment just to stare into the perfect, endless pools of chocolate.

"Mitchie?" I didn't want to ruin the magic of the moment but it was started to bug me.

"Hmmm?" she answered, snuggling her head into my neck and placing a few velvet kisses to it.

"What made you decide to come out to me?" I felt her kisses halt for a second but it was quickly replaced with her hot breath against my neck instead.

"You're smile…" she said vaguely.

"How so?" I asked pulling away to look into her eyes. Those eye; God, I could look into those eyes until the day I die.

"I just wanted to fix your smile" Mitchie said quietly, burying her head shyly back into my neck.

"Damn, I love you." I whispered into her ear, breathing out a lot more hot breath than actually necessary. The shiver that followed from my breath in her ear only egged me on more. "I could hold you in my arms forever." I breathed out huskily into her ear.

I heard a quiet groan before I felt her lips press themselves against my mouth, her tongue pushing past my lips without even asking for entrance, but don't get my wrong; I didn't mind!

I felt Mitchie shift her body to hover over me. I reached for her waist and pulled her down to rest completely on top of me. Her body fit so perfectly into mine that there wasn't a shadow of a doubt left in my mind that God made Mitchie_ just _for me. I whimpered into her mouth when I felt her left leg fall in-between mine and rub quite intentionally between my legs.

"Mitchie, slow down; I want to savor this. We have the rest of our lives to spend with each other, just slow down a bit." I tried to convince her, though half of me was just wishing I had kept my mouth shut.

"Sorry." She giggled adorably.

"Don't be, just slow down a bit." I brushed my lips softly over hers before I kissed her forehead again and wrapped my arms tightly around her. She nuzzled her nose against my neck contently.

I'm not sure how long we laid there but after a while I was being shaken awake but Mitchie, her mom and sister standing beside the bed, each sporting an amused smile.

"Sorry, I guess I was more tired than I thought." I said sheepishly.

"You're fine; we just wanted to know if you were hungry and we were just going to leave you asleep but Mitchie said she had heard your stomach growl a couple of times so she wanted to wake you anyway." Connie explained, leaving me with another sheepish smile put there by my hungry stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** I wrote this a few weeks after I wrote the story but I thought I'd share it with you as sort of a separate part to the story.

Listening to screams  
But I block them out  
A different wall  
For every shout

Breathing deep  
Silence rings in my ears  
My scream breaks out  
But nobody hears

Pushing and pulling  
Like an ocean wave  
Fixing my smile  
When you stay the same

Darken my doorstep  
You know I'll take you back  
How do you do it  
You can always find a crack

Piano notes ring out  
A silent crowd then sing  
Notes from your heart  
Lyrics from your soul

Pulling hard to bring you back  
You thought I didn't care  
Scars left, blood leaked  
A thought I couldn't bare

Holding strong  
To the beat of your heart  
Praying for hope  
I need a start

Guitar notes play  
The tune from your soul  
You gave a weak smile  
I finally felt whole

I play you my song  
My words out of yours  
A hospital bed  
An acoustic guitar


End file.
